Reviews and Ratings
The slow-burn of being an indie author is that a tiny number of the people who listen to your show or read your books will review them on places like Goodreads, iTunes, Spotify, or Amazon. Those first half dozen or so are always assumed, I think, to be family members, close friends, and perhaps your die-hardest of die-hard fans. So, I don't think people take them seriously when they are the only reviews out there.
But the wonderful thing about it is that, if you keep going, they build over time. Of course, if you're a smash hit, then there's an avalanche of reviews. But when you're smaller, you just rely on plugging away and watching those number climb slowly until there's a critical mass, because they don't go away. They remain, hyping your work up year after year.
So, if you're one of the many people who have reviewed the Weeping Cedars podcast, the select group who has reviewed Samite or Wrought of Amber, or the tiny group that has reviewed my books: Thank you.
Even if you hated one of them and gave it a poor review. Thank you.*
And if you're an indie author, keep plugging away, keep working on your craft, and celebrate each review as it comes in, knowing that this is a long-haul kind of project.
*Unless you're that jerk who listened to half an episode and then reviewed the whole series as if it were exactly the same as the first half of that episode. You can get lost in the woods and encounter something so unknowable that your mind shatters.
